A French court on Thursday, January 25, acquitted a policeman who described a woman who filed a sexual assault complaint as a "whore" in a 2022 case that sparked outrage.
The woman, then 34, filed a complaint at a Paris police station in February 2022 saying she had been assaulted in the street after several drinks on a night out. A male police officer later rang her, leaving a message on her answerphone asking her to come back and finish the paperwork. Thinking he had hung up, he then started insulting her, calling her a "whore" twice and a "fat whore" once, according to a recording of the message published by the investigative journalism website Mediapart.
The story sparked indignation from activists, who said it reflected how many police officers treated victims of sexual violence. In a rare comment, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the officer should be fired.
The policeman was charged with "non-public insult because of gender." A Paris court found him not guilty, the judge told Agence France-Presse. The details of the decision were not immediately available.
The plaintiff's lawyer, Arie Alimi, said his client would appeal. The judge "did not consider a policeman telling a woman who had been sexually assaulted she was a 'fat whore' to be a sexist insult," he said. "The judiciary continues to protect police officers."
The verdict, which came as France marks its second national day against sexism at President Emmanuel Macron's initiative, was met with disbelief online. "'Fat whore' isn't a sexist insult? Thank you to the[...] court for this contribution to the national day against sexism," Socialist Senator Laurence Rossignol wrote on X.
During the trial, the police officer apologized and said he had had to beg Darmanin to keep his job. He had been suspended for more than four months, and then transferred and forbidden from contact with people filing sexual assault complaints or those they had accused.